The new Scrivener project is all set up, with a page or two of “don’t forget to mention….” notes. My main characters have names. The book has a title.
I’ve got a shiny clean notebook all ready for first day of NaNo morning subway writing, and a new pen that clips to a lanyard so I don’t lose it when I almost miss my stop and have to gather my stuff and run before the doors slam shut.
On Monday, I’ll come home from work and shed my Hallowe’en costume (is it optimism or pessimism that I’m once again going as my alter-ego, steampunk novellist Merle Darling, who still hasn’t finished last year’s NaNo novel?!). I will sup (can’t “dine” on Hallowe’en, especially not with lunch being the office “Battle Bite-Size” potluck), spend a few last hours with friends and family and then, at the stroke of midnight, BAM! If I can get a couple of hundred words down between midnight and one, and pick up my train of thought on the subway Tuesday morning, I think (I hope) I’ll be fine.
I’ll miss the cheerleading talents of my former office-mates, but I’ve posted last year’s cheesy oaktag “digital” word counter on the wall of my new cube so that I’ll still have an unavoidable reminder of my achievements or shortcomings in the place where I spend most of my waking hours. And I have the certainty that I can do this, because I’ve done it before.
Most of all, I have a story I want to tell.
Here’s to another fine marathon. And the best of luck to my fellow NaNo writers. It’s a hell of a ride!
